William M. Sharp

William Sharp is an attorney in Holland & Knight's Tampa office with more than 35 years of experience representing clients in a wide variety of international tax planning and tax controversy cases. Mr. Sharp provides international and domestic tax advice to a numerous U.S.-based and foreign-based clients, including publicly traded and closely held entities. His tax practice also focuses on globally oriented high-net-worth clients, including U.S. and foreign-based family offices. Mr. Sharp has served as lead counsel with respect to U.S. Tax Court, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appeals and examination cases. He also has served as lead counsel or co-counsel to well over 1,000 IRS voluntary disclosure cases.

Mr. Sharp advises financial institutions and their clients on international tax enforcement initiatives. In addition, Mr. Sharp represents several Swiss-based banking institutions in connection with the U.S. Department of Justice Swiss Bank Program, including the largest bank participating in the program and one of the major cantonal banks (both cases were resolved under Category 3 of the program). Mr. Sharp also has extensive experience in handling matters related to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and other cross-border compliance and disclosure initiatives.

Mr. Sharp has served as an adjunct professor at the Stetson University College of Law and a lecturer at the University of South Florida Executive MBA program. Mr. Sharp is a frequent speaker on international tax and business law matters, and also has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reuters, USA Today and other media on international tax issues.

Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Mr. Sharp was founding and managing partner of a boutique international tax law firm.

Honors & Awards

The Best Lawyers in America guide, Tax Law, Litigation and Controversy - Tax, International Trade and Finance Law, 2005-Present; Lawyer of the Year, 2019

Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated

Florida Super Lawyers magazine, 2007-Present

Memberships

American Bar Association, Business Law Section, Section of Taxation, Section of International Law

Swiss American Chamber of Commerce

San Francisco Foreign Tax Club

International Fiscal Association

International Bar Association

Society of International Business Fellows, 1985-Present; Chairman, 2001